Cheapest way to ski the new year ?

On Sun, 7 Sep 2003 23:51:58 +0100, "Richard" wrote:

Richard wrote:
Try Snowstar Holidays in Tignes they will offer a discount for New Year
if
you ask. See www.snowstarholidays.com for more details.

Sarah wrote:
They would need to. Those prices for catered chalets would be
average-to-cheap if they included flights, but for travel-free
accommodation, even with food, they look like a ripoff!

I think that "ripoff" is a bit strong as our prices were comparable with
other operators.

Sarah's obviously not au-fait with luxury chalet prices and is
comparing with brochure prices for package deals. Which I guess is
fair enough if that's what you want, but a quick look at your prices
does seem to confirm they're reasonably competitive with others in le
Lac.

However we have just reduced our prices to remain
competitive (and we still offer discounts to Ski Club members).

Do you think you've made this point enought yet ;-)

The reduction is to allow for the fact that flights bought separately are
more expensive than charter flights.

We try to listen to the views expressed in
the newsgroup! Richard.

*thud* :-)

--
Ace (bruce dot rogers at roche dot com)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Ace wrote:
On Sun, 7 Sep 2003 23:51:58 +0100, "Richard" wrote:


Richard wrote:

Try Snowstar Holidays in Tignes they will offer a discount for New Year

if

you ask. See www.snowstarholidays.com for more details.

Sarah wrote:
They would need to. Those prices for catered chalets would be
average-to-cheap if they included flights, but for travel-free
accommodation, even with food, they look like a ripoff!


I think that "ripoff" is a bit strong as our prices were comparable with
other operators.


Sarah's obviously not au-fait with luxury chalet prices and is
comparing with brochure prices for package deals. Which I guess is
fair enough if that's what you want, but a quick look at your prices
does seem to confirm they're reasonably competitive with others in le
Lac.

That's a fair comment, I have never travelled in luxury class for
anything (skiing or otherwise)!

I did have a specific comparison in mind: we went with Ski World
in 2000 (I'm not related, and we had a great holiday in La Plagne).
They typically charge around GBP 389 low season and GBP 489 midseason
for chalet, flight, and transfer. These are package deals, although
not what I think of as a package company, since they are a much
smaller outfit than Crystal/Thomson.

humble pie
Snowstar also don't compare quite as badly for the specific week of
New Year.
/humble pie

We try to listen to the views expressed in
the newsgroup! Richard.

I withdraw my criticism, but you might sensibly choose to avoid
posting on the subject "cheapest way to ski the new year" if you
don't want to be compared to budget alternatives.

-Sarah

(Dominique Foucart) wrote in message . com...
Mark,

I am not convinced that attempting the last minute deal on a New Year
ski booking is very safe, definitely if you have to go with children.

If you are looking for hotels, it may be fairly expensive, but if you
go for a good combination of appartment rental, station with good
animation and child-club, you may end up with reasonable (?) pricing
(knowing that the prices for equipment and the slopes won't go down at
the peak of the season...)

Good Luck,

Dominique Foucart
www.loc-alpes.com

(Mark) wrote in message om...
Has anybody any recent experience of booking a late deal at New Year?
(I have noted some Google posts from pre 2000 that suggest that good
offers are difficult to find, but cannot find anything of late).
Brochure prices are just so high (for one that is used to skiing
mid-January !)

I am particularly interested in the higher French resorts that offer
good childcare facilities, although other areas would be considered
depending on conditions at the time.

Thanks in advance for any helpful information.


Thanks to everybody for your help/suggestions/advice. Call me naive
but having never skied at New Year before I was amazed at how popular
and expensive that week is.

Having looked into the prospect of skiing at New Year, a diy approach
seems to be the cheapest option. Flights are expensive though (maybe
the no frills airlines might have some reasonable fares if you book
early enough). Driving would be an option, but we have a 4 hour drive
to Dover to start with so that loses some appeal.

We have therefore decided to give New Year a miss and go skiing early
January, as normal. The snow quality will be much the same, the
slopes will be quiet, the prices will be low and we should find it
much easier to find childcare provision. OK, so I'll have to take a
couple of extra days leave and put up with Joanthan Ross on New Years
Eve, but so be it.